Shaman pro reviews?

With the shoe relatively new and sharing most of its name with a very popular model, it’s been extremely hard to find any reviews of this newer model. There was another thread here on MP about evolv’s 2023 models that had some preliminary reviews from 2 people. Made a new thread hoping to get better exposure people’s input on this shoe if possible.

How have they been performing for you? Obviously they’re different shoes, but I don’t see any obviously different use cases between these and the phantoms. I ordered both the shaman pro lv and phantom lv in the same sizes. Fit and stiffness seem similar while only trying them on. Haven’t pulled on anything yet as I’m undecided on keeping yet. They both seem like they’d be great outdoor bouldering shoes.

How much stretch have you seen? 1/4 to 1/2 size? None at all?

Shamam Velcro (or Oracle lace) > Shaman Pro.

The single strap enclosure just doesn't get snug in the right places/ways for me. Something is different with the love bump/knuckle box as well I can't quite place.

I’d imagine you’d be using the laces very differently than the pros though, yea? The laces seem like they’re very much geared for sport or trad while the pro seems more marketed for bouldering. But I guess especially for bouldering you’d want to be able to tighten them down real hard.

The new closure system sucks. It has all the drawbacks of Velcro with none of the benefits. For reasons unknown, there is also no stopper at the end of the straps upon which the Velcro tab slides. This means you could easily lose the Velcro tab as your shoes jostle around, especially if you carry your shoes binered to your harness/backpack. I ended up wrapping the ends in tape after having a near-miss.

A greater volume of the shoe is black as well (hot hot hot).

as per usual with shamans, very little stretch. What you buy is what you get (however the shoes’ flexibility increases with use). They’re jut as comfortable as the previous models but as the other user mentioned, harder to cinch nice and tight

Don’t know what they were thinking with this iteration. 

Given the lack of overall reviews of the shaman pros, these give an overall not great impression of these new, expensive shoes… guess I’ll hold off on these for now. So many other shoes to still try out to find that elusive unicorn fit haha

I have a pair of the shaman pro's and like others have said, the closure system is garbage and annoying to deal with. Luckily the pair I have are pretty snug, so I don't really have to worry about tightening them. I would favor the regular shamans over the pro's tbh. 

Long N wrote:

I have a pair of the shaman pro's and like others have said, the closure system is garbage and annoying to deal with. Luckily the pair I have are pretty snug, so I don't really have to worry about tightening them. I would favor the regular shamans over the pro's tbh. 

Also the strap tightening to the inside just looks bananas to me. Please no Evolv I do not know why but I hate it.

Weird I love the pro closure system compared to the Velcro. The Velcro got all frayed and I had to pull them so tight I was running out of Velcro loops half way though the life of the shoe it bagged out so much. I got them in street shoe size, I went 1/2 down in the pro and they cinch down crazy right, hug my foot everywhere with no pain. The pro seems to edge better than the Velcro but that could just be sizing down, not sure. I don’t get why anyone would be worried if the strap pulls though, yeah it can happen you just run it back in, takes 2 seconds . 

VictorN wrote:

I’d imagine you’d be using the laces very differently than the pros though, yea? The laces seem like they’re very much geared for sport or trad while the pro seems more marketed for bouldering. But I guess especially for bouldering you’d want to be able to tighten them down real hard.

Sure - I typically use the laced model for longer routes/top rope/sport/trad and the velcro model for everything. That said, my laced oracles (now the laced shaman) have seen plenty of bouldering hours and perform fantastically, just not convenient for taking on/off frequently.  I think it is just the single-strap closure mechanism that I don't like (not isolated to evolv, other brands as well); I like to be able to cinch sections of the shoe.

D F wrote:

  I think it is just the single-strap closure mechanism that I don't like (not isolated to evolv, other brands as well); I like to be able to cinch sections of the shoe.

Personal preference is a factor here. I really like the single-velcro closure systems used on the Phantom, on various Tenaya shoes, etc. So to me the Shaman Pro closure looks nice.

There is less custom adjustability though, compared to a lace up, so it is important that the shoe fits just right without need for adjustment. If the single-velcro closure doesn't allow you to tighten properly, maybe the shoe just doesn't fit your foot.

Re: tightening to the inside (like on the Phantom). It looks weird at first, but I think that's just since it's different. It's no big deal and works well once you get used to it. I've never had the Phantom inside closure get in the way or come undone while climbing.